Ersan Ilyasova has not been himself this season – the guy who averaged 13.2 points a game on 46.2 percent shooting and 44.4 percent from three last season is averaging 8.2 points a game on 38.3 percent shooing this season and 21.6 percent from three. His stats are like that across the board. To use PER as a snapshot, he has gone from an above average 18.3 last season to a “why isn’t he in the D-League?” 8.9 this season.

A lot of that is due to a rash of injuries — thumb, hamstring and most lately an ankle sprain that has lingered from the preseason and been aggravated.

The ankle injury means we might not see Ilyasova for a bit, reports Charlie Gardner of the Journal Sentinel.

Ersan Ilyasova is being shut down due to his ankle injury and Gary Neal in a walking boot and will not travel to Cleveland, Drew says.

The Bucks went into this season saying they didn’t want to tank, but early struggles and injuries have made them the worst team in the NBA so far this season.

To paraphrase Williams Shakespeare from Twelfth Night: Some teams are born to tank, some achieve tanking, and others have tanking thrust upon them. The Bucks may have had it thrust upon them, but as our own D.J. Foster has noted at this point they need to embrace it. If you’re going to be bad, this is the year to do it.